The biggest book so far

 
We do not always foresee the consequences of our actions. About two weeks ago, I ordered a book through the university library, which is practically a daily pastime for me whenever I have access to an interlibrary loan system. Earlier this week the book arrived, but when I went to the library to collect it, the librarian was at first unable to find it in the shelves reserved for interlibrary loans. I then noticed that on top of the relatively low book case someone had placed a behemoth of a book, and with a slight worry that soon proved to be justified I suggested that this might be the one in question. Returning to my office turned out to be the most gruelling bout of exercise I have had since Christmas, not least because the spine of the monster contained an unrepaired tear that could easily become enlarged if handled carelessly. 

The book in question is the eighth volume of Corpus Codicum Danicorum Medii Aevi, a series of editions and facsimiles of books from the Danish Middle Ages. I needed this particular volume since it contains an edition of a collection of various letters and charters pertaining to the cathedral church of Ribe in Denmark. This collection is colloquially known as "Ribe Oldemoder", the Ribe great-grandmother, and was begun at the end of the thirteenth century. The source is both famous in Danish medievalist circles and of course very important for our understanding of medieval Denmark. I had hoped that this fame and popularity would have ensured that it had been issued in a slightly more manageable format. It turned out I was very naïve in thinking so. 

Aside from an unexpected training session, the book also provided me with a new personal record in biggest book borrowed. To better appreciate the size of this gargantuan specimen, I have placed it next to one of the two volumes of the Oxford Medieval Texts edition of Gesta Danorum by Saxo Grammaticus (fl.c.1200), mainly because this was the fattest volume I could find in my office, but also because I found it symmetrically pleasing to compare two Danish books with one another. The previous record for biggest book borrowed was held by a mid-twentieth-century reprint of an early modern edition of Vincent of Beauvais' Speculum Historiale, which I first handled a few months after the defence of my MA dissertation. While that book was indeed unwieldy, it had nothing of the back-breaking qualities that have ensured this volume of Corpus Codicum Danicorum Medii Aevi its first place in a competition inadvertently initiated in 2013.